


Superior Inspiration

by moonblooch



Series: Critical Class-Swap [1]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, class swap with vox machina, either nott grows to be a genuinely amazing singer, i know nott wouldn't be a bard in a million years but like what if, its entirely up to you, or she invents fantasy screamo, you can read this two ways
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-23
Updated: 2018-09-23
Packaged: 2019-07-15 19:11:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16069484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonblooch/pseuds/moonblooch
Summary: An alternate speculation on campaign two where Nott is a bard.





	Superior Inspiration

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own any of the characters contained herein.

Goblins have little use for music. Their instruments, not that many of them could truly be called that given their crude construction, exist solely for noise making in the event of an attack. Simple rattles and drums to raise an alarm or instil fear, but Nott finds them fascinating nonetheless. Her own drum, which was older than she was and may or may not have been crafted from human skin (that definitely wasn’t a tattoo on the edge, why do you ask?), was one of the few things that she could truly consider hers.

Yeza is another one of those things. She hasn’t been taught the meaning of affection or love at this point; goblins have little use for these concepts, but she quickly defines him as her own.

He formally introduces her to music. It’s not his strong suit, as he stresses many, many times, but he shows her how to keep a beat, and he listens to her warbling attempts at song as he shows her which chemicals to mix together. He can’t appear to help wincing, but as she continues this happens less and less. He assures her that she is actually in tune, and that he hasn’t just built up a tolerance.

The magic is unexpected, to say the least. Nott was humming a tune one day, one that she didn’t know the lyrics to yet (Yeza had said they were rude though so she was looking forward to learning them immensely). She started to tap a light tune on her drum, matching it up with the tune as best as she could, when all of a sudden her room was filled with light. A tiny sphere, glowing like a warmer version of the moon, floated in front of her. Eyes wide, she reached out to touch it, feeling no heat when her fingers passed through the light. She let out a gentle hum and the light moves, shooting upwards to the low ceiling.

Nott runs to Yeza, small light cupped in her tunic and whistling all the way to keep it with her, and a smile cracks his face wider than any she’s seen before. He tells her its magic, tells her he can’t teach her about that, but if she keeps the music going then more magic will follow. Maybe if they can get out of here, he can find someone to teach her.

Their escape (at least she hopes to every god she’s heard of he’s escaped) puts a stop to their lessons.

From there she scurries from shadow to shadow, fishing for coins when she dares and taking as much alcohol as she can get her hands on. Few towns are lenient enough to goblins to send any her way, but every now and then she gets lucky.

Getting thrown into prison doesn’t at first appear to be one of those occasions, until the bundle of rags in the corner turns out to be a man.

A man who knows magic.

Caleb doesn’t have a bad reaction to her as such, though she later suspects that he was simply too weak to be afraid. They come to a tenuous truce within the first few days, starting when she finds out that he isn’t even strong enough to fight her for the single ration that gets shoved into their cell. She reaches the point where she’s eaten most of it before she sees his feeble hand reaching towards it. Yeza’s hand reaching from behind rickety bars flickers before her eyes and she flings it in his direction.

From her corner, which she had immediately crawled back to, she hears a quiet “danke”.

The next day they chance conversation and split the ration equally.

The day after that he makes their ration float and she demands lessons. Their magic is different, and he doesn’t have much to begin with, but her voice has been growing since she ran away, and with it her skill. Most of what he can teach her is theory, which only barely makes any sense to her, but eventually something clicks. The first spell she manages takes a lot of wind out of her (and learning that what she had been doing so far weren’t really spells but cantrips was really fucking annoying) but it heals some of Caleb’s bruises so at least it did something.

Her next spell, a shaky Mage Hand, lifts the keys from a guard and allows them to escape.

They run, and they reach the point where she no longer needs his lessons, but by then she has realised that she cares for Caleb. Him and his stupid scrawny cat that she only hasn’t eaten yet because it’s so good at hiding. It’s thanks to him that she has a word for it after all.

She alternates days with him when it comes to getting money, although really they work best together. She has to waste most of her new magic on disguising herself when they do. She busks and always attracts a crowd when she does so. Whether this is because they want her to stop disturbing the peace or because the disguise she picked on that day is a starving-looking child isn’t always clear but it gives Caleb enough of a distraction to grab any loose valuables or the odd purse that the members of the crowd are sporting, which stops them from going hungry.

When she’s out of magic they chance a tavern room if they can afford it and hide in a dark corner if they can’t until she can try again.

The other members of the group that would soon be called the Mighty Nein are a surprise. Even more so in the way they all meet, because for once it’s Caleb’s fault. Not that Nott could ever blame him. That tasty looking cat was a different matter.

Between them, and even months later Nott has no idea how, they snag her a busking spot in a tavern. And it’s going well, really well. Nobody’s thrown anything yet and despite the fact that some of these people definitely have hangovers nobody’s told her to shut up either. There’s even a few coins in the hat she put out (and sure, they’re coppers, but that’s better than she usually gets unless they’re backed into a corner with her crossbow pointed at them and her mask down).

Then Frumpkin has to go and spoil it by bothering Jester’s familiar and getting all five of them thrown out in the scuffle that ensued, seven if the animals are counted. Which they won’t for much longer if Nott has anything to say about it because whilst she doesn’t want to upset Caleb by going after Frumpkin (she’s just waiting for an unfortunate accident on that one), Jester’s familiar looks fucking delicious.

The two carnival promoters they bowled over on their way out of the tavern press some flyers into their hands, and that’s how they end up fighting an insectoid zombie together. There is more in-between, there has to be, but their afternoon of drinking has left Nott’s mind fuzzy until she is brought crashing back into cold, hard sobriety by an old man sprouting claws.

Her singing actually manages to soothe the monster at the carnival, freezing it in place for long enough that the others can kill it. Months of humming to Caleb when he seizes up have sweetened her voice. Nott can still shatter glass, but only on purpose now.

**Author's Note:**

> I know the ending is kind of bleh, but I'm posting this when I'm still sleep deprived or else it won't get posted at all.


End file.
